Stormclan Challenge: Is this the End?
by Moonfeather24
Summary: Quickstep is a Warrior who constantly thinks the world is going to end. This story is a one-shot of how it almost did. This is for the stormclan forums - /forum/StormClan/130979/


Thunder boomed in the distance as lightning flashed across the dark heavy sky. Wind gusted through the trees and along the shore. Heavy droplets of water slowly began to fall; the intensity of the rain slowly grew steadily strong.

A patrol of four warriors and two apprentices raced into camp. Quickstep brought up the patrols rear, eager to be in his dry nest once again. The cats scattered all diving into their consecutive dens.

Quickstep stood in his nest as water slowly trickled through his white tabby pelt and soaking his once dry fur. Droplets formed on his long whiskers before dropping to the ground.

"I told you Moondapple, the sky really did explode! I knew it was going to happen eventually!" He meowed triumphantly to the dark furred she-cat crouching in her own nest nearby.

"Oh calm yourself Quickstep! It's just a bit of thunder and lightning, nothing to worry about," The she-cat huffed ruffling her soaked fur.

"Yeah, you think every storm is the ends of the world, you've never been right, now go dry off elsewhere!" A mottled brown tabby snapped from the nest next to Quicksteps.

"Fine, I'll go see Morningstem," Quickstep meowed stomping out of the warriors den.

The white tabby warrior made his way over to the medicine cats den, where is sister, Morningstem, worked as the clan's medicine cat. The dapple grey she-cat was hiding in the herb store where it was most dry.

"Morningstem, the other warriors think I'm crazy!" He complained.

"That's because you are mouse brain!" Morningstem hissed with irritation. "Now get out of my den before you get all the herbs wet!"

He quickly turned and fled from the medicine cats den. Felling unwelcomed in the camp, Quickstep raced out of the camp and into the forest. He located a nice dry spot beneath a large tree. He huddled beneath it shiver as the storm raged on around him.

As he drifted to sleep, he barely felt the ground shaking and shivering beneath him.

Slowly his bleary eyes opened to be greeted by sunshine. Bird's songs echoed from tree to tree around him. Everything seemed so calm, and peaceful and still.

Quickstep rose to his paws and stretched, his thoughts drifted to camp. _They won't care if i don't come back right away, they don't need me._ He thought ambling in the opposite direction of the camp.

His eyes reverted to the sky as his thoughts drifted to one cat in particular. Shyleaf had been the love of his life, before lighting struck tree branch had crushed her. He still remembered her sweet scent and the beauty of her sleek cream colored fur.

Quicksteps paws sunk in what felt like mucky sand. He snapped back to attention only to find he had made it all the way to the shore line of the sea. The only problem was, the water was gone.

"Where did it go?" He asked amazed to see the water gone, the sand that had been beneath was littered with dead and dying fish.

Quickstep bounded over and sniffed one of the fish. It smelt delicious; it occurred to him that if he could get these fish all back to camp the clan wouldn't think him to be mad anymore! He hurriedly picked up the fish and dragged it back to the shoreline.

Minutes later the tom had accumulated a large amount of fish on the shoreline. He grabbed as many as he could carry before beginning the long haul back to camp. He barely made it past the first few trees when a rumbling roar pierced his ears. He spun around and saw a large wave of water barreling down upon him.

Dropping the fish Quickstep spun around and raced through the forest, "Run! Everyone run, get out of camp! THE WORLD IS ENDING! ITS OVER WE'LL ALL DIE!" He shrieked making a beeline for camp. Water droplets struck his paws. _Starclan keep them safe! _He thought leaping into an old sturdy tree. He scrambled upwards until he was higher than he had ever climbed before.

He flattened his ears and watched the water crash to the ground and keep flowing forward towards the camp. Then as suddenly as it had advanced the water began to retreat, dragging anything unfortunate to get stuck in the torrent with it.

He watched in horror as bits and pieces of his ever so familiar camp slowly flow away. Shocked he saw the limp body of the mottled brown warrior, Robinheart, who had yelled at him being swept away. He dug his claws into the tree branch and leaned over trying to snag the warriors fur.

It was to no avail, Robinheart was swept away, possibly forever. A sob escaped Quickstep's throat. He had always thought the end would, come, but not like this. His paws snagged a bundle of grey fur. It was Morningstem. He dragged the unconscious cat from the water and stowed her away up in the tree where she wouldn't fall.

Soon the water was gone leaving the forest with large puddles of water littering the floor. He heard a groan from above him as his sister awoke.

"What happened? where am I?" Morningstem asked looking down at Quickstep.

"In a tree," Quickstep replied flatly. The warrior climbed down from the tree slowly. The bushes and undergrowth had all but been ripped away. The weaker trees had also been ripped away.

He slowly padded back to the camp. His paws laden with dread over what it would look like. The camp was no longer a camp. Most of the dens were missing, and tree branches lay scattered around the clearing.

Quickstep slowly scanned the camp for signs of life. He spotted a dark furred bundle of fur struggling to detangle themselves from a bramble bush. Morningstem hurried over and helped Moondapple.

"Your okay Morningstem? That's good," The soaked she-cat sighed, then her eyes fell on him.

Quickstep waited for the harsh remark but there was none. He stared at Moondapple shocked, normally she was the first to yell at him, maybe things were starting to look up.

A few days later, Quickstep padded into the camp which was in the rebuilding process. He carried a few mice and a squirrel. He dropped them on the small but growing fresh kill pile.

He nodded to Moondapple who had been named deputy in the after math of the huge wave, Breezestar, who had survived the wave was still in charge of the clan. Everyday more of the warriors and apprentices returned. There had been a few confirmed losses, including Robinheart.

The camp life was returning to normal. Something else had changed as well, Quickstep no longer felt the urge to talk about the end of the world. It's like those words had just left his vocabulary. The wave had washed away his thoughts of the end of the world, and brought those of a new beginning.

((Authors note: I know, my story isn't the greatest, i'm not exactly an A Class writer, but I hope to get better with each thing I write ^.^)


End file.
